Steve Webb
SAN FRANCISCO, CA — In their storied history, the franchise now known as the Los Angeles Dodgers have won one hundred games in a season a grand total of eleven time. Amazingly, five of those eleven have been in the past seven seasons. It took all 162 for the Dodgers to do it this year, but wouldn’t you know it, they delivered, hitting the century mark right on the button with a 5-2 victory over the rival San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park. Had it in the bag all the time.
“I don’t think winning 100 games surprises anybody in this clubhouse,” Freddie Freeman told reporters after the game. “But to do it when — I mean we have one guy in the starting rotation that was in spring training coming out of it that is in there now. We’ve faced a lot of ups and downs and we rose above it and got 100 wins.”
In this one, it was Bobby Miller with the start, and the Dodger rookie showed why the expectations for him in the post season are so high. He pitched four scoreless innings in this final tune-up before a probably start in Game 2 of the NLDS next week. And he looked pretty damn good while he was at it. The fireballing righty gave up just one hit in those four frames and walked only one Giant along the way. Miller came out after 57 pitches, so the guy should be ready for war in his next start. Victor Gonzalez pitched a nice innning in relief to get the win. Ryan Pepiot got touched up for a couple of solo homers, but looked good otherwise. And Evan Phillips retired the Giants in order to get his team-leading 24th save of the year.
Offensively, the Dodgers were quiet in the first five innings of the game. Very quiet indeed. Giant pitcher Kyle Harrison pitched five no-hit innings before being lifted in the sixth because, well because that’s how they roll these days.
With Harrison out of the game, the Dodgers’ bats came alive versus the San Francisco pen in the top of the sixth. Reliever John Brebbia came out to mound to face the middle of the Dodger lineup, and it looked for a while like it was going to be another nondescript inning. Brebbia got two punchouts surrounded by a Will Smith single and a walk to Max Muncy. But everything changed with two outs in the inning.
Amed Rosario drilled a single up the middle off new pitcher Taylor Rogers to get the Dodgers on the board. Then, James Outman put a wounded duck into center to plate a second run. Finally, the coup de grace: a three-run bomb to left off the bat of Kiké Hernandez. That was all it took to put an end to the Giants’ hopes of winning the ballgame. The pair of homers that followed really had not much of an impact on the outcome of the game.
The only thing that kept it from being a perfect finale was that two Dodgers fell just short of individual milestones. Freddie Freeman finished off one of the best seasons in Dodger history stuck on 29 homers and 59 doubles. So it will have to be another year that someone finally gets to that elusive 60-double mark that has not been hit for nearly 100 years.
A little more troubling was Mookie Betts, who was the best player on the planet through the month of August. However, his power numbers (and his MVP chances) plummetted in September, and he finished the season with 39 home runs. Betts hit just one long fly in the month, a stat that is troubling moving into October. However, the Dodgers walked off the field after their 100th victory of the season, a fact not lost on some of the veterans in the lineup.
“We’ve been on a lot of winning teams,” said outfielder Chris Taylor, one of nine players who have been part of all four 100-win teams the last five years. “It’s easy to take it for granted. We had a really good year and I think it’s important to reflect on it and feel good about it.”
“It’s been quite an accomplishment, with a lot of positives and a lot of growth,” said manager Dave Roberts. “Just seeing how this group came together from the outset of the season … there’s been so many great moments.”
And hopefully, those great moments will continue for another month or so.
